Four Candles shop opened by TV great Ronnie Corbett two years before his death closes

FOUR Candles — the shop opened by TV comedy great Ronnie Corbett just two years before his death — has closed.

It was named after the ­classic 1976 sketch from the Two Ronnies BBC series.

It saw him play a shopkeeper who misunderstands a request by a shopper, played by Ronnie Barker, for fork handles and instead gives him four candles.

The shop was co-owned by Sophie Corbett, whose dad launched it in Brighton in 2014, before it largely became an online venture and “pop-up shop” in 2019, three years after his death aged 85.

A source said: “Just like the hardware store from the famous Four Candles sketch, this was a traditional independent retailer that sold a vast array of household goods — including candles.

And it’s just the sort of business that are fast disappearing from our high streets thanks to the internet.”

It was said to be partly based on Harrington’s Hardware Store in Ronnie’s favourite holiday resort in Broadstairs, Kent.

A spokeswoman for Sophie confirmed that she had shut the store and said: “She had a shop for five years and loved every minute of it.”